Nuclear Power is NOT the Solution to Our Global Warming Woes

Low Impact Living — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 20:15:48 +0000

[Editor's note: The following is a guest-post from Low Impact Living]
As our presidential campaign season draws towards a close and the attacks / counter-attacks reach a fever pitch, it’s almost impossible to separate fact from fiction. So many contradictory proposals, so many disparate numbers — I wouldn’t be surprised if someone says the sky is bright pink before we’re through.

The debate about energy policy is a case in point: the proposals so far have ranged from sound (invest in multiple forms of renewable energy) to questionable (clean coal, 45 new nuclear power plants) to the insultingly cynical and foolish (Drill Baby Drill!).

Why Drill, Baby, Drill Will Never be an Energy Solution and is NOT an Energy Policy

Jennifer Lance — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 08:37:02 +0000

I’m sure at tonight’s presidential debate, we will hear more of John McCain’s energy policy. I’ve recently read some enlightening information in The Bush League of Nations: The Coalition of the Unwilling, the Bullied, and the Bribed by James A. Swanson that proves “Drill, baby, drill” is not an energy policy, and it will never make us energy independent. US oil production peaked in 1970 at more than 11 million barrels a day, ironically just three years before the oil crisis. Consider these statistics from Swanson’s book:

By the end of 2005, US crude oil production had dropped to 4.86 million barrels per day, which is less than 45% of America’s peak production in 1970.
By 2005, America was producing less oil than it did in 1950.
The 1970 record oil production represented more than 40% of total world production, but it was still not enough to meet America’s appetite for oil-almost 15 million barrels per day in 1970.
By the end of 2005, U.S. oil consumption had increased to about 21 million barrels per day, while U.S. production, as noted above, had dropped to 5 million barrels. American now has to import more than 75% of the oil it consumes.
By way of comparison, at the time of the 1973 oil crisis, during which Americans endured closed gas stations and gas lines blocks long, the United States imported less than one-third of its oil.
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Green Options » mccain energy policy

Nuclear Power is NOT the Solution to Our Global Warming Woes

Why Drill, Baby, Drill Will Never be an Energy Solution and is NOT an Energy Policy